Designer and visual artist Grace Wales Bonner and photographer/filmmaker Harley Weir have added to their growing collaborative archive with a new “experimental film” titled PRACTICE. Focusing on Leroy Mokgatle, a 17-year-old ballet dancer from Pretoria, the film was shot across Johannesburg and Cape Town, and includes footage of dancers they met along the way. Devonté Hynes, AKA Blood Orange, was called upon to create the soundtrack – an appropriate fit considering his own focus on dance. The film follows a number of earlier collaborations from the duo, including their film documenting wrestlers at the Pink Lake in Senegal for i-D.
“Film feels like a rich medium through which to expand my world, opening up new possibilities for collaboration, research and communication,” Grace Wales Bonner says in a statement, adding, “Harley’s eye and Dev’s intuition really brought this to life. I have been so motivated and inspired by the team, and the dancers I met along the way. The film is a testament to them”. Dev Hynes adds, “It was an honour to work on this film, which involves many aspects of life that mean so much to me, and to work with Grace and Harley in this regard just adds to the experience”.
The film was made in partnership with Kodak, and was shot on Kodak 16mm stock, with supporting imagery created on a Kodak Ektra smartphone. “As a brand, Kodak has always championed creative freedom, enabling artists by providing them with the tools to realise their vision,” comments Kodak’s Danielle Atkins. “We continue to strive to give a platform to female creatives, so to support two women who are blazing trails in their respective fields made total sense. The integrity central to both Harley’s photographic work and Grace’s designs lend themselves to the authentic, tangible quality that only shooting on film can bring.”